"Hi mom!" I said, pressing the phone to my ear.

"Hey, sweetheart. How are you?"she asked.

"I'm okay, how are you?"

"Fine . How's school?"

"It's good,mom. How's Grandma?"

"She's much better now.Ashley, actually I called to tell you that-"

"-Ashy! We're having lunch!" Aaron yelled.

"Who was that?"

"Uh, that was Aaron, he lives here."

"Aaron?"

"Yeah,why?"

"Oh, nothing.I was just going to tell you I'll be back by next week."

My heart sank . Don't get me wrong, I loved my mom to bits.It was just...Aaron.

"That's great, mom!" I forced the words out of my mouth.

"Okay I have to go,speak to you later."

"Bye mom."

"Take care," she said and hung up.

I drew in a deep breath. Oh,this was going to be hard.

All through lunch I was just thinking this : Next Week.

After such a long time of being with him almost all the time, not always having him around was going to be hard.

"What's wrong Ashy?" Aaron asked softly, probably having noticed that I hadn't even touched my lasagna.

"It's nothing," I replied, putting a forkful of the lasagna into my mouth to avoid answering his question for a while.

He frowned."Tell me," he said in a demanding voice.

I shook my head as I chewed slowly.

"It's nothing, Aaron," I said after I'd swallowed.

"Ashley."

"Aaron."

"Please?"

"My mom's coming back next week."

His eyes widened."Next week?"

"Next week."

"That's... so soon."

I slumped in my chair. "I know."

"It'll be okay, Ashy. I mean it's not like we're not going to see each other, right? We just have to get used to not seeing each other as often."

I nodded, pretending to understand.

"You're really going next week?" Amanda piped in. She'd been quiet till now and I'd forgotten she was there.

"Apparently," I shrugged.

"I'm going to miss you." she said.She looked sad.

"I'll miss you too," I replied honestly. She'd been nothing but nice to me since the day we first met.

Aaron didn't say anything for a while.He looked like he was thinking hard about something.

Finally he spoke,"You up for a date tonight, Ashy?" he said with a playful smile on his lips.

"Definitely," I smiled, suddenly cheering up.

"Time for a group hug!" Amanda declared, scurrying over to me to give me a hug (which was basically her squeezing the life out of me) . Aaron did the same .I hugged them both back with a laugh. I was so lucky to have these people in my life.

God, I was going to miss them.

We spent the rest of the day in the house,watching movies togeher. Just Amanda, Aaron and me.

I appreciated the fact that they were trying to ditract me so I wouldn't get upset about the whole leaving-next-week issue.

Besides, I had fun too.

That night, Aaron and I went on our first official date.He took me to the beach where a table for two had been set up. There were a few candles on the table and everything looked great.

"This is perfect, Aaron," I said, staring at everything in awe.

"Really?" he asked,like he was surprised.

"Really,"I replied, kissing him on the cheek.

"Remember when I told you we were going for a movie and dinner?" he asked.

I nodded. The day we were actually supposed to go on our first date, he had told me that we were going for a movie and we'd grab something to eat afterwards.

"Well, I was lying. This is what I had in mind.I wanted to surprise you but, uh, you know what happened," he scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

I smiled at him, resisting the urge to break into tears. He was so sweet.

"Thank you so much Aaron," I hugged him.

"Anything for you," he replied, hugging me back.

We walked around the beach for a bit . We'd gone an hour before sunset, because it would get really cold later.

Fortunately, Aaron had thought of getting us both jackets, so we were both pretty warm and comfortable.

We walked around the beach for a while, holding hands.

I almost laughed at how a few months back I would've found it cheesy as hell. Now, nothing could be more perfect.

"Thank you,Ash," Aaron suddenly said, surprising me.

Firstly, because he rarely ever called me "Ash" and secondly, why would he thank me ? If anything , I should be the one thanking him for giving me such a beautiful time.

"Why?"

"For being in my life."

Could this boy get any cuter?

"Thank you."

"Why?"

Why?How many things could I possibly thank him for?

"Just thank you,"I shrugged.

"Oh, anything for my favorite person in the world."

I grinned. He was so sweet.

"Oh, I almost forgot," he said."I'll be right back."

Before I could say anything, he ran off.

I shook my head.This guy, I swear.

Five minutes later, he came back.

"Where were you?" I asked suspiciously.

"I was looking for something. Couldn't find it," he admitted sheepishly.

"What is it?"

"I meant to give you this before but you know,I didn't get a chance to give it to you, so I'm giving it to you no," he said and opened his hand to reveal a beautiful necklace with an emerald pendant.

My jaw dropped open."That's so beautiful, Aaron," I whispered.

"You like it?" he asked with a grin.

"I love it."

He handed it to me and I put it on."How do I look?" I asked, once I'd put it on.

"Perfect."

"You're perfect," I whispered, leaning in closer to him.

"I am?"

I nodded and kissed him on the lips. I pulled away before he could kiss me back.Revenge was sweet. Albeit, kissing him would've been much, much sweeter..

"See?" I giggled.

"You did not just do that," he glared at me playfully.

I laughed and ran away from him.I looked at him over my shoulder. I suddenly tripped and faceplanted into the sand.

He burst out laughing. "Oh,Ashy," he laughed softly before helping me up.

I glared at him and turned to leave but before I could walk away, he placed his hands at the small of my back, pulling me to him.

He stared at me and I stared back. "You're so beautiful," he whispered, pulling me close.

I felt myself blush and looked away.What? I didn't know what to do.

"Why are you looking away?" he chuckled.

"I'm not."

He laughed softly.I realised that his laugh was my favorite sound in the world.

He brushed away the few strands of hair from my cheek and then gently turned my face towards him.

"I can't describe what I feel for you, Ashley," he whispered. "And it scares the hell out of me."

I looked at him with wide eyes. I couldn't tell him how much I could relate to that.

"Me too,Aaron."

It was quiet for a while and we just kinda stared at each other.

"Are we having a "moment"? " Aaron said, a smile playing on his lips.

"I guess we are," I replied with a small smile.

He shook his head.

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"It's unbelievable how a few months ago I would'vefound this creepy and cheesy as fuck and now..." he trailed off.

I let out a short laugh."I know,right?"

"You hungry?" he suddenly asked.

"What?" I asked, taken off guard by the sudden change in topic.

"Are you hungry?" he repeated.

"Kinda, you?"

He nodded eagerly making me laugh and we walked back to have dinner.

I wish I could say that dinner was perfect. Well, it was. In a weird sort of way. In an "us" sort of way, if that even makes sense.

It started off well. We had some fancy starter that I couldn't remember the name of. It was kind of weird, but it tasted pretty good so I wasn't going to complain.

It started when the waiter guy got noodles. No, the noodles tasted amazing but...

"Ashley, you don't eat noodles like that."

I rolled my eyes."Enlighten me."

"So, basically you just do this," he twirled the fork on his plate.

I stared at him incredulously. "But that is just what I was doing!" I protested.

He smirked mischievously. Oh no.No, no,n-

Before I knew it, a forkful of noodles came flying at my face.

"AARON!"

And that is how we managed to start a food fight on our first date ever.

It was weird. We were weird. We were weird as fuck. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

***